With the exception of Indonesia, all RSPO members’ concession maps are available for download in shapefile format
Kuala Lumpur, 26 March 2020 - The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Board of Governors (BoG) have made all RSPO members’ concession maps (except for Indonesia) available for download in shapefile format for geographic information system (GIS) analysis.
Whilst all RSPO members’ concession maps were previously available for public viewing via RSPO’s interactive mapping platform, GeoRSPO, these maps can now be downloaded and used for independent use or analysis. The RSPO Secretariat is still working to make the Indonesian maps available for download and hope to be able to do so within the coming weeks.
Interim Chief Executive Officer of the RSPO, Bakhtiar Talhah, said “I commend our members for taking another significant step to further improve the transparency of the sustainable palm oil value chain, through shared responsibility and collaboration. I hope this encourages other agricultural commodities to follow suit for complete transparency across all supply chains and greater protection of forests.”
At the 10th Annual RSPO General Assembly (GA10) in November 2013, Resolution 6g was passed; requiring the submission of all RSPO members’ concession maps, both certified and uncertified. RSPO partnered with World Resources Institute in 2016 to develop its mapping platform, GeoRSPO. Maps published on GeoRSPO cover all RSPO concessions from around the world, which have been submitted by RSPO grower members and some processor and trader members. This includes RSPO members in Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Togo.
Data sourced through satellite technology allows RSPO’s GIS unit to actively monitor oil palm grower members’ compliance to RSPO’s 2018 Principles and Criteria (P&C) relating to deforestation, no new planting on peatlands, and for fire and hotspot monitoring. The use of fire for land clearing is completely banned within RSPO certified units and companies are required to take other precautions to prevent accidental fires.
About RSPO:
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. RSPO is a not-for-profit, international, membership organisation that unites stakeholders from the different sectors of the palm oil industry including oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs, and social or developmental NGOs.
This multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Board of Governors, Steering Committees and Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the "roundtable" by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders in working together to reach decisions by consensus, and achieving RSPO’s shared vision of making sustainable palm oil the norm.
The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with satellite offices in Jakarta (ID), London (UK), Zoetermeer (NL), Beijing (CN) and Bogotá (CO).
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